Discover the Cooking of shilpa dandekar
Experience a vibrant fusion of traditional Indian flavours and contemporary culinary techniques.
A Q & A with shilpa
How did your career begin?
I started cooking professionally in India when I joined the Taj Group as a hotel management student and found my niche in hotel kitchens. It was the perfect way to learn how professional kitchens worked and I learned a lot about classical Indian cookery. And, because Taj hotels also offered international cuisine, I was exposed to a huge variety of cooking techniques. It was a very regimented approach but as I developed as a cook I wanted to improvise and be more creative and coming to the UK gave me the opportunity to do tha
When you came to the UK did you start out cooking in Indian kitchens?
Actually no, I was young and looking for experience and I cooked everywhere from Tootsie’s to pub kitchens, and I loved it. I learned a lot about how small restaurants worked and I worked with some great people. I have really fond memories of working in the kitchen of a pub in Richmond run by a wonderful Irish couple.
What led you to open your own restaurant?
I’d cooked in lots of great kitchens and learned from some amazing chefs but I had always wanted to cook my own food. Faheem my husband knew this and was also keen to go into business for himself, and so Pure Indian Cooking was born. Our roles mesh together brilliantly, Faheem handles the business side and runs the front of house in the restaurant, leaving me to run the kitchen. It’s given me so much freedom to perfect dishes and to experiment and offer something that I hope is true to my Indian culinary roots but also a synthesis of all my cooking experience.
And then you moved to Quilon, one of the first Indian restaurants in the UK to earn a Michelin star. How did that come about?
Well, my husband Faheem was working there in front of house and encouraged me to come in for an interview. The restaurant was run by the Taj Group where I’d started out so I was totally familiar with their way of working. It gave me a huge insight into the discipline required to achieve and maintain a Michelin star rating.
Your next move was to work with Raymond Blanc at Brasserie Blanc, why did you swap Indian cooking for classical French cuisine?
I wanted to move up the kitchen hierarchy and eventually get a head chef role. Brasserie Blanc gave me the opportunity to do just that. I had to step down from being a sous chef to a chef de partie initially because I didn’t have French experience. However, I found myself falling in love with French cookery and learning from Raymond Blanc and his right hand man Clive Fretwell about how to use classical techniques such as making beautiful stocks to bring intensity and purity of flavour to simple dishes. I love to learn and to try new things and I think my enthusiasm together with just pure hard work led to me being promoted to head chef at the second branch of Brasserie Blanc to open at Bank in the City.
Our Story
Since 1994
The Food
Quality
Chef James Kohela
Get to know the Chef and you will start to enjoy dining out even more
SIGNATURE DISHES
KHADE MASALA TANDOORI DUCK
orange & tamarind chicken tikka
Pan seared scallops
Bhure Pyaaz ka Gosht
Smoked Paprika Sesame Chicken
HALIBUT FISH CURRY
OUR SISTER RESTAURANT
Opened to acclaim in 2024 our sister restaurant Pravaas is situated in South Kensington’s Museum Quarter and not too far from Stamford Bridge. It’s a beautifully decorated elegant space and the perfect place to enjoy Shilpa’s peerless dishes closer to the centre of London.
